National force put before local (4)
I believe the answer is:
finn
'national' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'force put before local' is the wordplay.
'force' becomes 'f' (scientific abbreviation).
'put before' says to put letters next to each other.
'local' becomes 'inn' (local can mean someone's local pub).
'f'+'inn'='FINN'
(Other definitions for finn that I've seen before include "Scandinavian such as Sibelius" , "Trollope character" , "Man from Helsinki" , "Sibelius, perhaps" , "Native of Espoo" .)